Sudbury Gets $300K Grant To Buy Abandoned Rail Property

SUDBURY, MA — Sudbury on Monday was awarded a $300,0000 grant from the state that will help the town buy a stretch of abandoned railway to extend the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail to near the Framingham border.

The grant will cover the 1.4-mile former CSX railway that begins just north of Route 20 near Station Road. To receive the MassTrails grant, Sudbury will have to contribute at least 20 percent of the total acquisition cost, either through direct funding on in-kind services. That cost would be about $580,000.

The Board of Selectmen is still in talks with CSX about a final purchase price. The item will be up for a vote at Town Meeting on Sept. 12.

This project is one of two closely related rail-trail projects Sudbury has been discussing in recent months.

In early July, MassDOT unveiled a proposed plan for an approximately 5-mile extension of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail from Concord to near Station Road. That $13.4 million project will be paid for through the Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization Transportation Improvement Program.

With the addition of the 1.4-mile section south of Station Road, the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail would be near completion. The trail was named for the state representative who died of cancer in the mid-1980s. Before his death, he began work on planning the 25-mile rail trail along the former Penn Central line. A portion of the trail is open between Lowell and Concord.